Netflix to announce its India launch soon

Dated: January 06, 2016

Netflix, the US based TV shows and movie streaming platform is expected to announce its service in India next week. The popular on-demand streaming service, which has previously announced plans to enter Singapore and Hong Kong and two other Asian nations in early 2016, will announce its arrival in India at the trade show CES 2016, scheduled to begin next week.

For its India launch, the United States-based company has partnered with an unnamed Indian telecom operator to leverage the latter's 4G networks. As of now, only Airtel is the only telecom operator with a substantial 4G footprint in the country that's available to the public, and even that is available in select regions only. Reliance announced its 4G services last week though it is currently only available to its employees.

4G speeds will be able to deliver faster speeds and are a perfect fit thanks to better battery savings on mobile devices. Netflix’s earlier plans involved going global by year end of 2015, so far things have not turned out to be this way. The delay to entering the Indian market was earlier attributed to everything from licensing costs and internet infrastructure to the diversity of genres.

Though Netflix is not officially available in India, many in the country use third-party tools to get around geo restrictions and use the service. With an official launch, subscriptions could be offered to users at a cheaper tariff rate to better compete with the rivals. Singapore's on-demand video provider Hooq offers its service at Rs. 199 per month.